Vol. 40, No. 34 Section 01 Tallahassee, Florida Aug. 28 - Sept. 3, 2014

50 cents

Primary Turnout Foretells a Promising Election Season

By Aldranon English

Outlook Staff Writer

A hopeful elec-tion season is un-derway as a total of 8,000 residents cast their votes for their candidates during primaries this past weekend.

Early voting started Aug. 16 and ran through Aug. 23 at seven locations in Leon County in-cluding: Eastside branch library, the Fort Braden branch library, the Lake Jackson Communi-ty Center, the Leon County Court-house, the North-east branch library, the Smith-Williams Service Center and the Woodville Community Center.

A total of 109,281 voters statewide took the opportuni-ty to vote early not including absentee voters, which was a total of 7,594 vot-ers.

Supporters held signs and wore T-shirts with their candidate of choice

in hopes of them winning their race. State Transit En-vironmental Plan-ner Amy Datz was disappointed in the representation of one of her candi-dates.

“I think it is very sad they left Nan Rich out,” said Datz. “I am a Nan Rich fan, and they keep reporting on Charlie and Rick, but I think they should report on Nan Rich. Give her a fair shot.”

When asked about her predic-tions for the win-ners, she believed Rich could compete in the race despite the odds.

“I am hoping that Nan will pick up enough steam so that Charlie will re-alize that if he does get on the ticket and win that there is a lot of left side leaning Democrats and he shouldn’t only pander to the conservative vote because it is a lot of people out there who care,” Datz said.

Josie West, an avid supporter of State Representa-tive Alan Williams, was ecstatic about the election this far.

“It is very com-petitive; but the best one always wins,” said West.

West was ada-mant that Gillum will win the may-oral race.

“I think Andrew Gillum is a shoe-in for mayor,” West said. “He has done a lot for the com-munity over the past few years.”

Leon County Su-pervisor of Elec-tions Ian Sancho expressed that early voting made it eas-ier for many citi-zens.

“We are right where we need to be and we would have 91 voting loca-tions open on Tues-day,” said Sancho. “I don’t anticipate many long lines anywhere and now we are just waiting for the voters.”

What was unique

about this year pri-maries was that early voting ex-panded to several locations, including the Smith-Williams Service Center on the Southside, which has never been used before as an early voting lo-cation. In 2012, the legislature melted the election down with their changes that they made to the laws to try to suppress voters. Sancho went into detail about what needed to be done for voters in Leon

County.

“As a result of people waiting seven hours to vote the legislature was shamed into chang-ing the laws,” said Sancho. “With the changes of the law, we can now utilize community centers to increase flexibil-ity among citizens.”

The primaries also introduced new voting equip-ment to increase convenience among

voters. A new elec-tronic swiping sys-tem premiered this season for residents to utilize during the voting process. A registered voter could now swipe their driver’s li-cense to be admit-ted into voting.

“No one has to look through books or find the right spelling of your name,” said San-cho. “Your driver’s license will tell us and locate you im-

Photos by Aldranon English IIA supporter stands near Leon County Courthouse showing support for one of her candidates.

see ELECTION, page 2

www.capitaloutlook.com Capital Outlook Aug. 28 - Sept. 3, 2014 2

Photos by Aldranon English IISeveral individuals stood in support of their favorite candidates during primaries.

mediately in our voter registration file instantly. We are using technol-ogy to ensure voters are moving through the process expedi-tiously.”

The initiative was enforced due to an increase in voter

registration. Sancho is hopeful that with these new advances they will be ready to go in November.

“We have to do that when we are dealing with a dy-namic growing population,” San-cho said. “And you want to be sure that

you don’t cause people unneces-sary delay; voting should be conve-nient, accurate and accessible.”

Sancho was a bit disappointed about this year’s primaries but is hopeful for the fall.

“We probably won’t see the same

turnout in past pri-maries that we have seen, but this does give us hope for November,” said Sancho. “By using this low turnout primary as a dress rehearsal, we know that we are ready.”

Sancho stressed that there weren’t any defining races

in the primaries, but expressed that people should still go and vote.

“There aren’t any judge or county commission races on the ballot,” San-cho said. “This is a very small primary, but if people don’t take advantage now, they will give up their right to

vote in some criti-cal races because some of these posi-tions will be deter-mined on Tuesday. Individuals should be voting, no mat-ter how big or how small the election. We vote to protect our own interest.”

ELECTION CONTI-